European United Left/Nordic Green Left European Parliamentary Group

The social and solidarity economy in Europe. 26 February

Event date: 26 Feb 15

The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) is an alternative proposal to the dominant economic-productive model that understands the economy not as a goal but as a means leading to personal and community development. It proposes some economic activity centered on people themselves, their community and the environment, promoting relations of production, distribution, consumption and financing based on the principles of justice, cooperation, reciprocity and mutual aid.
Social Economy enterprises and organisations are particularly active in the following domains: social security, social and health services, insurance services, banking services, local services, education, training and research, social tourism, energy, consumer services, industrial and agricultural production, handicraft, building, residential environment and cooperative housing, associated work, as well as in the domains of culture, sport and leisure activities.
Currently, SSE is a reality as a pillar of the European economy, since it integrates 10% of the two million European companies (over 200,000 cooperatives) and employs 11 million people. However, so far these experiences are being developed with little attention from European public institutions, impeding progress toward legal, political and financial frameworks that permit and encourage the advancement of the sector. Companies and organisations that are part of the SE concept are not recognised as a different institutional sector in the national accounting systems so that cooperatives, mutual societies, associations and foundations are blurred in national accounting, becoming barely visible.
Delegations of the European United Left (GUE/NGL) and the Greens (GREENS/EFA) are intending to promote a meeting between the various experiences that are being developed by European institutions and cooperative networks in Europe for sharing experiences and best practices and reflect on the challenges this alternative booming sector faces.
This effort is divided into two parts. In this first event held on February 26 we will welcome a panel of experts from Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Portugal and Belgium, and it aims to highlight the state of the art of the Social and Solidarity Economy in each one of these countries and in Europe.
A second event, to be held in the first half of the year, will consist of an exhibition directly presented by the organisations and cooperatives that are making the Social and Solidarity Economy one of the most promising and more resilient to shock sectors.